Former NBA Basketball Player & Humanitarian Manute Bol Dies at the Age of 47

A hero and a role model …

What a tragic loss to a sports athlete who totally understood how his fame could help others and was a true role model, not to children who admired basketball, but to a nation …

In Memoriam – Manute Bol
October 16, 1963 – June 19, 2010
Rest in Peace

Manute Bol at was a 7 foot 7 inch was the tallest player ever to play in the NBA. His shock blocking ability made him a menace on the court; however, for the Dinka tribesman it was his humanitarian work off the hard wood that he will forever be remembered for. Sadly, Manute Bol died today at the age of 47 from kidney failure and a a skin disease, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Bol spent 10 years in the NBA and dedicated his life to humanitarian efforts to help his homeland Sudan. Bol was a towering figure on the court, but nothing compared to the towering presence he was to the Sudanese people.

Manute Bol is survived by 10 children, including four with his second wife, Ajok, of Olathe, KS.  May he rest in peace and God bless this man who got it and made a difference to so many in such a short period of time.

Manute Bol more than a basketball hero, a real hero who made a difference and was a role model

“Sudan and the world have lost a hero and an example for all of us,” Prichard said. “Manute, we’ll miss you. Our prayers and best wishes go out to all his family, and all who mourn his loss.”

Bol played in the NBA with Washington, Golden State, Philadelphia and Miami, averaging 2.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 blocks for his career. He led the league in blocks in 1985-86 with Washington (5.0 per game) and in 1988-89 with Golden State (4.3 a game).

Check out Manute Bol as he has his own block party. I remember watching this highlight
back in the day and simply just being amazed

Manute Bol founded Sudan Sunrise, a group based in Lenexa, KS, that promotes reconciliation in Sudan. Manute Bol, dead at the young age of 47 and a hero to so many. Unlike so many in sports, Manute Bol was a true hero and role model.

In a 2001 interview with The Times in Khartoum, Bol said he dreamed of going back to Turalei and his roots. “I would have a big, big farm,” he said. “Then we have no worries about money. If you have the cows, you have the money.”

Bol returned to Sudan regularly during his playing days and once he retired, he became more politically active there. He went there late last year to check on the school construction, then stayed on to campaign for a candidate in the region’s presidential election that was held in late April, said Mr. Prichard, who had traveled there with Bol in November. During his extended visit, Bol became ill and was briefly hospitalized in Nairobi, Mr. Prichard said.

“He really felt that his country needed him,” Mr. Prichard said. “He really died for his country. He wanted to do everything he could to see southern Sudan make it through this election in the best possible way.”

Joran Van der Sloot to Join General Population at Castro Castro Prison in Peru … Is JVDS a Dead Man Walking?

Water seeks it’s own level … welcome to Hell Joran. Who knew that Justice for Natalee abd Stephany might come eventually in the form of “Prison Justice.”

“They’ll be lining up to kill him. He has no hope. He has no chance.”

 According to Amigoe, Joran Van der Sloot will soon be put in general population at the Castro Castro prison in Lima, Peru. With two th three months Joran Van der Sloot, the little Dutch boy who has been accused in the  robbery and murder of 21 year old Stephany Flores will be put in with the rest of the hardened criminals in the Castro Castro prison. Throw in the fact that Joran Van der Sloot has confessed to the murder and what better place is there for “the little Sporter” than with the rest of the human waste of convicts in general population.

Joran van der Sloot will be transferred to the general department of the Castro Castro prison in Lima within two to three months. He is currently confined in cell on his own in a separate department – for his own safety. Joran is on remand for the murder of the 21-year old Peruvian Stephany Flores.

In a TV-documentary with the Dutch station SBS 6, prison director Ruben Rodriguez Rabanal stated that Joran is in a separate cell as he is involved with a high-profile case’. He will be placed with the other prisoners within two to three months’ time.” The director does not expect any problems. He states that mainly child abusers have a difficult time amongst the prisoners. “Joran is not a child abuser. He is a big fellow. I therefore do not expect any problems when he is placed amongst other prisoners.”

It’s time for Joran Van der Sloot to put on his big boy underwear. The “Little Dutch bboy” is about to learn a lesson of real life, if you can’t do the time, then don’t do the crime. There is no reason why Van der Sloot should be given special treatment. The Castro Castro prison is home to many murderers in general population. Joran van der Sloot is no special than any other killers. Welcome to hell Joran, YOU AIN’T IN ARUBA ANYMORE!!!

However, journalist Wim van de Pol, the only Dutch reporter ever to have visited the Castro Castro prison, says it is perilous inside. “The right of the strongest applies there.” It is indeed a severely guarded prison of the highest level, but the security is only focused on keeping the prisoners inside, Van der Pol explains. “They monitor who goes in and who goes out. What happens inside is not that important.”

Read more

International Rock Star President Barack Obama Now Seen as Incompetent and a Rank Amateur by the World

Hey Europe and the International community, how’s that Barack Obama “Hopey, Changey” stuff working out for you? It appears about the same as it is for Americans. 2012 cannot get here fast enough.

From Mort Zuckerman of US News & World Report comes this revelation regarding the “Chosen One,” Barack Hussein Obama … ‘World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur’. You mean they are finally just noticing now? Let this be a lesson to America and the World, hype does not make experience, a leader or a President. It was not to long ago that Europe was rooting for a Barack Obama victory … my how The One’s image has fallen.

The reviews of Obama’s performance have been disappointing. He has seemed uncomfortable in the role of leading other nations, and often seems to suggest there is nothing special about America’s role in the world. The global community was puzzled over the pictures of Obama bowing to some of the world’s leaders and surprised by his gratuitous criticisms of and apologies for America’s foreign policy under the previous administration of George W. Bush. One Middle East authority, Fouad Ajami, pointed out that Obama seems unaware that it is bad form and even a great moral lapse to speak ill of one’s own tribe while in the lands of others.

Barack Obama’s apology tour is hardly the show of American Presidential strength that Europe and out allies were looking for. So in the end, the World did prefer a “cowboy” after all, eh? As Newsbusters reminds us, from top to bottom, the Obama Administration are legislators, not leaders and they lack the competence for the positions they hold. It is no coincidence that Obama is “Lost in Smallness” and unable to lead … he never has, why would any one have thought he suddenly could on the grandest scale?

The end result is that a critical mass of influential people in world affairs who once held high hopes for the president have begun to wonder whether they misjudged the man. They are no longer dazzled by his rock star personality and there is a sense that there is something amateurish and even incompetent about how Obama is managing U.S. power. For example, Obama has asserted that America is not at war with the Muslim world. The problem is that parts of the Muslim world are at war with America and the West.

Read more

Barack Obama Hits All Time Low of 41% Approve 58% Disapproval Rating in Rasmussen Poll

Holy cow Batman … President Barack Hussein Obama has hit an all time low in the most recent Rasmussen poll. The One has a total approval rating of 41% and a disapproval of 58%.OUCH!!! Obama’s poll numbers are coming a part at the seams. How long will it be before a poll shows Obama with an approval rating in the 30′s? Obama’s poll numbers were already heading downward due to Obamacare, the budget, economy and his being against the will of the people on every topic. However, the BP oil spill and his lack of handling and leadership has been his undoing.

Barack Obama’s true undoing is that he has completely lost the Independents.

Overall, 41% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. That’s the lowest level of approval yet recorded for this president. Fifty-eight percent (58%) now disapprove.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Democrats approve of the president’s performance. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Republicans disapprove along with 72% of unaffiliated voters.

President Obama’s numbers have typically bounced following a national television event. Generally, they bounce up a little. Once, following a press conference, they went down. In all cases so far, the bounce has lasted a week or so and then faded.

Thirty-three percent (33%) say the president is doing a good or an excellent job handling the Gulf oil spill.  Forty-six percent (46%) say he’s doing a poor job.

The most recent Gallup poll has Obama at 45% approval and 46% disapproval.

Yikes, the Real Clear Politics average polling now has Barack Obama under water, 47.7% approve, 48% disapprove. The more the oil comes ashore in the BP oil spill, the more the polling numbers will sink. The question is, does this President have the stones to continue to golf while the Gulf coast region is facing an environmental disaster?

Who will be the brave Democrat politicians who actually ask Obama to come to their district or state to help them in their midterm election races? Watch the once enamored Democrats flee from Obama’s offers of political help for their elections.

Kyron Horman Missing: Watch Press Conference Live

Portland, OR– The last 24 hours of the case of missing 7 year old Portland child, Kyron Horman, has the community boiling over with speculation that Terri Horman, Kyron’s stepmother, is a suspect in his disappearance.

Read the rest at Blink on Crime:

Ready, Aim, FIRE … Ronnie Lee Gardner Executed by Firing Squad in Utah

Ronnie Lee Gardner wont be down for breakfast …

49 year old Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad last night in in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gardner was sentenced to death for a 1985 capital murder conviction from the fatal courthouse shooting of attorney Michael Burdell during an escape attempt.

 Ronnie Lee Gardner, death by firing squad, how retro

Pics can be seen here.

Gardner was executed at 12:17 am as a Utah firing squad took marksman ain at the target placed over his heart. I must admit, I did not even know that we had execution by firing squad anymore. Actually, Gardner was allowed to choose between the firing squad and lethal injection because he was sentenced to death before Utah eliminated the firing squad as an option in 2004. Gardner told told his lawyer he did it because he preferred it. Ask and you shall receive, and Gardner did.

In an eyewitness account, Associated Press reporter Jennifer Dobner wrote, “There was no blood splattered across the white cinderblock wall at the Utah State Prison. No audible sounds from the condemned. I couldn’t see his eyes. I never saw the guns and didn’t hear the countdown to the trigger-pull.”

Gardner, when given the opportunity to say any last words, replied “I do not, no.” A black hood was then fastened over his head, and shortly thereafter the executioners followed a count down from five to two and then fired the shots that ended Gardner’s life.

Gardner was allowed to choose between the firing squad and lethal injection because he was sentenced to death before Utah eliminated the firing squad as an option in 2004. He told his lawyer he did it because he preferred it – not because he wanted the controversy surrounding the execution to draw attention to his case or embarrass the state.

In the end, good riddance to bad rubbish.

However, for such a retro death penalty talk about your new age of commuication way to communicate the death sentence. After Gardner was put to death by firing squad, it was tweeted on Twitter.

Shortly after midnight in the US state of Utah, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff picked up his Apple iPhone, opened up a Twitter “app” on his handset and began tweeting.

But Mr Shurtleff’s 134-character composition was no ordinary post. This was not a piece of miscellany from the 53-year-old’s home life, a link chosen to amuse or interest his followers, nor even a political prod at his Democratic rivals.

Instead, Mr Shurtleff used Twitter to announce that most important of all things: the death of a human being, convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner.

Obama & Dems in Trouble with BP Oil Spill … Voters Say Response to Leak Important in Midterm Elections

More bad polling news for President Barack Obama and House & Senate Democrats. According to a recent Rasmussen poll,  71% of American voters rate the government’s response to the BP oil spill as somewhat important as to how they will vote in November’s midterm elections. 71%!!! 35% say that the Obama governments reaction and response to the oil spill is very important.

RUT-ROH, considering Americans have given Obama a failing grade on his respionse and leadership to the oil crisis in the Gulf and have even stated in a Democrat leaning poll, that GWB did a better job with Katrina than Obama with the BP oil spill.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. Voters rate the government’s response to the Gulf oil leak as at least somewhat important in terms of how they will vote in November, with 35% who say it is Very Important.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% of Likely Voters say the government’s response is not very or not at all important to their upcoming vote.

The Obama administration has come under increasing criticism for its response to the two-month-old – and continuing – oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Obama has labeled the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Barack Obama has stated he is in charge, yet he has spent more time on the golf coarse than in the Gulf. Now Obama looks to go to the Gulf coast region all the time for photo ops. Sorry Obama, you do not get a second chance to make a first impression.

The feds handling of this oil spill crisis can only be summed up as absolute shere incompetance. Thank you President Obama for your Executive Branch leadership, the voters will not forget.

Making matters worse and adding insult to further incompetance … the federal governemnt, Coast Guard, blocks the crude oil sucking barges.  This is how a disaster is managed? UNREAL!!! The Coast Guard shut down the barges. As NRO states, this is hardly a Chuchillean moment.

Eight days ago, Louisiana  Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state’s oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor’s wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.

 ”It’s the most frustrating thing,” the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. “Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges.”

Finally the barges were allowed to go do their jobs, 16 of them allowed to finally work 8 DAYS LATER!!!

President Obama claims in his words that he is in charge, but his actions and the CLUSTERF#$K going on in the Gulf coast region show quite a different thing. The more this crisis goes on, the more one just has to scratch their head is disbelief at the Presidental leadership in this fiasco.

Joran van der Sloot: Melody Granadillo, Ex-girlfriend’s Nickname Should Be “LUCKY”

Tonight on ABC’s 20/20 will be an exclusive interview with Melody Granadillo, Joran’s ex-girlfriend who we call “LUCKY”. “LUCKY” has stayed in contact with Joran since 2005 and is also close to Anita. One wonders if some of the money from this interview with ABC is going towards Anita’s airfare to Peru?

Promo ABC 20/20 to air tonight:

Melody was going to be one of Joran’s character witnesses for the civil case in New York. She has had a lot to say over the last 5 years some of which can be read here.

2005

Now Melody says she has remained friends with Joran even up the murder of Stephany Flores. She admits that Joran is a liar:

Follow the most recent updates in the two cases here

Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL & Missing From Lackland Air Force Base

17 members of the Afghanistan military are missing and have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base, the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, according to FNC. However, this this is breaking news? Well not quite, the reality is that these AWOL Afghan’s have been missing for two years and none in the last three months. ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned. 

The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security
 badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, “Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.],” issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com.

Just a question America, if our government can lose 17 Afghan military folks in three years … do you really want these people handling your health care? Just a thought.

Oh but don’t worry America there is nothing to fear, these missing, AWOL Afghan military types were only here to learn how to fly planes and speak English. It’s not like that is anything that a terrorist woulld want to learn. OUR MILITARY WAS TEACHING AFGHANS WHAT!!! And the hits keep on coming, after two years not all of the VISAS have been revoked? Exactly what are we waiting for, a terrorist attack? How do 17 Afghan individuals with military clearance just go missing in the US? Would they be considered illegal immigrants by the Obama WH? Maybe they just wanted to come to America and do the jobs that Americans just don’t want to do … like attack America.

“I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute,” said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland AFB. “They disappeared over the course of the last two years, and none in the last three months.”

Each Afghan was issued a Department of Defense Common Access Card, an identification card used to gain access to secure military installations, with which they “could attempt to enter DOD installations,” according to the bulletin. Base security officers were encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to their personnel.

“The visas issued to these personnel have been revoked, or are in the process of being revoked. Lookouts have been placed in TECS,” it reads.

The names of the missing and AWOL Afghans courtesy of No Sheeple Here.

Read more

Snakes on a Plane … Hardly, How About Heads On a Plane … Southwest Airlines, Wanna Get Away

So much for “Snakes on a Plane” … how about finding heads on a plane instead? Such was the case when an employee with a Southwest Airlines discovered the package on a  flight  to Fort Worth, TX.

A Southwest Airlines employee called police after finding human heads in a package set to be transported to a Fort Worth medical research company, the airline said.

“It wasn’t labeled or packaged properly,” said Ashley Rogers, a Southwest spokeswoman. “They called the local authorities.”

The incident happened in Little Rock, Ark., last Wednesday, she said.

Little Rock police turned the package over to the county coroner, who questions where they came from and if they were properly obtained.

Of course in reading this bizarre story the obvious came to mind and that was the quotes from the 1997 movie Austin Powers:  International Man of Mystery.

[Austin and Vanessa see a man decapitated]
Austin Powers: Not the time to lose one’s head.
Vanessa Kensington: No.
Austin Powers: That’s not the way to get ahead in life.
Vanessa Kensington: No.
Austin Powers: It’s a shame he wasn’t more headstrong.
Vanessa Kensington: Hmm.
Austin Powers: He’ll never be the head of a major corporation.
Vanessa Kensington: Okay, that’ll do.
Austin Powers: Okay.

Then there is the real side of this story. Imagine being the airport screener checking out this package and finding 40 to 60 human heads. Talk about your traumatic experiences, especially when the package appeared to be mislabeled. Mediaite raises yet another question … was this a legitimate package just improperly labeled or a black market enterprise for human heads? EESH!

You’ve got to ask yourself, which is more horrifying: that there is a profitable black market our there selling human heads, or that it’s totally common occurrence for a shipment like this to be sitting in the back of the planes you board?